RadioBanter - And now for something totally different!

On Mar 16, 3:50Â am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 9, 4:10ï¿½ pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 5, 3:20ï¿½ pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 3, 2:40ï¿½pm, Michael Coslo wrote:

Except for the reuse of possibly-contaminated 55-gal drums it all
sounds good.

Yeah, I've thought about it a great deal. Â I once bought a loaf of
French bread on the street which
came wrapped in a letter I'd discarded in the trash. Â It didn't bothe
r
me too much since I'd already gotten used to picking the baked
weevils out of the bread.

You owe me a new keyboard for that story.

The dial drum of the Southgate Type 7.... The
good copy was printed
on translucent Mylar and put on the drum.

That's a pretty inventive way to handle a homebrew dial.

TNX. Not a single new part was used. It's done a good job these past
dozen years.

It sounds remarkably like the way Hammarlund handled the
dial/illumination in the HQ-215.

That's what inspired the design, except there's no dial cord in the
Type 7. IIRC, the HQ-215 lamps aren't *inside* the dial drum, are
they?

I received the data from Engineering.

Good. Ms. Yardley sends greetings.

Unlike receiving tubes with their shiny
flashed getters, high power tubes often
use the anode or a coating as
the getter, and need to operate at high temperature to work.

I've read the eham thread and have even participated.

Excellent!

I'm forced to admit that I've got many of the original
transmitting and
receiving guides. Â When I sold industrial electronics for
Hughes-Peters,
I rescued an old Eimac three-ring binder from the trash.
Â It contains
the specs for most early and late Eimac bottles along with
applications
notes and design info for amateur amplifiers. Â

Priceless stuff!

Quite a number of those
notes and articles were done by Bill Orr W6SAI (SK).
Â I consider Bill's
articles to be excellent.

I agree. Those articles and notes often go far beyond mere
specifications and general data, too. They often explain *why*
something is done, not just what to do.

A lot of the info is rather subtle. For example, if one is used to
receiving and low-power transmitting tubes with their silvery flashed
getters, where overheating causes the getter to lose its silvery
appearance, it is counter-intuitive that the gettering action of high
power transmitting tubes can actually depend the plate reaching high
temperatures. Or that, in the case of high-gain glass tetrodes like
the 4-125A, running lightly loaded can cause the glass of the tube to
soften from electron bombardment.

I think that a lot of things were tossed in the 1970s-1990s because
folks thought they'd never be needed again. Can't tell you how many
tubes and tube-related parts I acquired in those years for little or
nothing, because the folks getting rid of it thought nobody would ever
need or want it in the future.

This sort of thing even happens in the aerospace industry. A lot of
documentation was simply dumped as programs ended. Rocket engine
designers are going to museums to see how it was done in the past, and
have the problem of seeing what was done but not why.

I can't tell you how many leftovers I have from buying material for a
project. Â When I lived in Cincy, I used to hit the scrap bins of a
plastics distributor so I have quite a bit of scrap teflon, nylon and
lucite rod, sheet and tube. Â Finding it when I want it is the hard
part.

Same here.

How's this for scrounging:

When this house got new siding back a few years, the antenna mast had
to come down so the siding could be put on. But when the mast was to
be reinstalled, I needed some spacers to make everything line up
correctly.

Machining metal to do the job would have been a big deal. Wood was
easy but would be a maintenance job, exposed to the weather. PVC was
too soft and not available in the right sizes anyway.

Then I remembered that relatives had redone their kitchen some years
earlier, and had gotten white Corian countertops installed. The
installers had left some Corian scraps behind. The relatives
had kept them, figuring there had to be some use for such wonderful
material.

Sure enough, the scraps were still available for the asking. I got
some and made the exact spacer blocks needed. Tough, weatherproof,
easy to machine, and even the right color.
Don't want fancy. Want functional.

Keeping the XYL happy, serves a function.

Agreed.

Â Keeping visiting hams from
laughing, serves a function.

They don't laugh when they see the contest scores.

I'm not above that. Â My last crank up tower from
Tashjian/Tri-Ex had a
crate built from 22-foot-long California 2x4's and
some long, narrow
strips of plywood. Â I kept it all. Â I'd never even seen 22' piec
es of
2x4 stock prior to getting these. Â They're reddish in color
and are of
some sort of pine not often found here in the East.

The only places I've seen such long pieces of 2x4 were in old balloon-
framed houses. One reason balloon-framing ended was the availability
and cost of such wood.

Well, these 3,000 to 5000 square foot mega-homes
have been cropping up
everywhere in the past decade.

We call them "McMansions" in these parts. But that really applies more
to the 4,000-8.000+ sf houses we see.

It is not unusual around here to see a perfectly good house from the
1950s to 1970s bought and torn down by a developer so a McMansion can
be built. The value is in the land - often the price of the new place
is twice that of the old. The current housing bust has mostly put an
end to that, but not completely. More than a few locals are up in arms
because it means less "affordable" housing units.

The amateur radio connection to all of this is that often the house
which was torn down had mature trees good for antennas and no CC&Rs.
"Development" often removes at least some of the trees, or they don't
survive the construction process, and the new place is usually CC&R'd
to the max.

Â They're much cheaper to heat and cool
than some of the earlier built homes.

That depends on two factors: scaling (as a house gets bigger, the
interior volume grows faster than the exterior wall/roof area) and how
houses are built.

When this house got the work done a couple summers ago, and some walls
were opened, it turned out that there was no insulation. Just a thin
layer of wallboard, 2x4s, 1x10 sheathing (not plywood yet the house is
from 1950) tar paper and mineral siding. Of course insulation and
Tyvek were installed, and then the new siding.

Same here. All about multiple uses.

...and the conservation of space.

More on that below.

The console is the key to strength.

That's why I mentioned the console. Â
Everything heavy sits on it. Â The
four supports for it distribute the weight so that nothing can break
through the door. Â There's one large HF rig, one HF/VHF/UHF rig,
four
rotor control boxes, an HF amp, three remote coaxial switches,
three
watt meters, two speakers, an antenna tune, a RTTY/digital
modem, spare
receiver and a monitor scope on the console. Â Assorted
accessory boxes
sit under the console and there's an LCD computer monitor
and a keyboard
on the desk too.

Beautiful, just beautiful..

One difference is that your console/desk is purpose-built for the
shack. Custom use, IOW. The op desk I use was designed to be multi-
purpose, and has been on several Field Days, as have the Southgate
rigs.

When a thing is built to do just one thing, it can often be made
simple and yet high-performance for that one thing. When it has to do
multiple things, there are always more compromises.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Mar 16, 6:53 pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 16, 3:50ï¿½ am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:

What's funny is that after you've lived in one of those places for
a while, these things tend to seem perfectly rational. When the embassy
water pump broke, we lived for six weeks with a string of locals hiking
the five flights to our flat with a bucket full of water in each hand.
They'd dump the buck in a plastic garbage can, turn around and trot down
the stairs for another couple of buckets. We lived like that for six
weeks--taking bucket baths, doing hand wash and so forth. Keep in mind
that all water used for drinking/cooking had to be boiled and filtered
before use, whether the pumps were in operation or not.

Thank you for your service to our country, Dave. You did that sort of
thing
for how many years, on top of military service?

We had a pipe burst inside a wall of our laundry room once. There was
no pipe available in town. Worker dug into the concrete wall, found the
break and used rubber tubing and hose clamps to join the broken pieces.
With every surge of the water pump, the tubing expanded and contracted,
looking like it had a pulse. WAWA--West Africa Wins Again.

bwaahaahaa!

Around here, "WAWA" means something completely different: Popular
convenience stores.

TNX. Not a single new part was used. It's done a good job these past
dozen years.

That's the ultimate in junk box building and a good track record for the
finished project.

Yet some would look down on it as "junk" and "a kludge".

IIRC, the HQ-215 lamps aren't *inside* the dial drum, are
they?

Yes, it is. There's only one inside the drum and another for the
S-meter. To the left of the dial window is a calibration adjustment.
To the right is an identical knob which dims the dial lamps if desired.
I desire it a lot since dimming them a bit keeps from having to put in
new lamps very often.

Perhaps the Type 8 will have a dimmer pot.....

I received the data from Engineering.

Good. Ms. Yardley sends greetings.

Heh.

As Richard Thompson says:

"Red hair and black leather, my favorite colour scheme..."

It's all about the curls....

I've read the eham thread and have even participated.

Excellent!

I don't know if it is or not. There's been some anger exhibited over
some issues. Quite a bit of erroneous information has been passed.

No matter; the important thing is that knowledgeable folks have
presented valid data.

I agree. Those articles and notes often go far beyond mere
specifications and general data, too. They often explain *why*
something is done, not just what to do.

Exactly. I'd never realized until I got the binder that Eimac had even
published amateur linear amplifier "how to" articles. A linear amp
isn't a difficult thing to design yourself if you understand why a final
tank Q within a paricular range is desired and you can use tables
published by Orr for translating the plate load impedence of a
particular bottle (run at a particular plate voltage) to find the values
of C1, C2 and L needed for the tank circuit.

I found "The Care And Feeding of Power Tetrodes" free for the
download,
along with lots more Eimac stuff at the BAMA mirror site.

They also have quite a few of the GE Ham News periodicals scanned.

There is a great difference between a receiving-type
tube run at relatively low voltages and a high power transmitting tube
run at high voltages. Their construction is quite different.

Until relatively recently, oxide-coated cathodes could not withstand
high plate voltages,
so tubemakers continued to use thoriated-tungsten filaments for
transmitting tubes
beyond 100-200 W or so. Tube size is another factor; a 3-500Z can
handle more than
ten times the watts of a 6146 but is not ten times the size, so other
methods have
to be employed.

Or that, in the case of high-gain glass tetrodes like
the 4-125A, running lightly loaded can cause the glass of the tube to
soften from electron bombardment.

That sort of thing was also evident in TV horizontal output tubes. As I
pointed out in the e-ham forum, Nonex glass was used in some later sweep
tubes to help in preventing suck-in.

I think the horizontal output suck-in problem was simply caused by
excessive heat
from the plate, in a poorly-ventilated TV.

What is described by Eimac in "Care And Feeding" was the glass being
softened
by electron bombardment of the glass, caused by running the tube
lightly loaded (low
plate current).

Having the parts to keep something running isn't the
problem. Storage is.

I could tell ya stories about *storage*....

I've read articles stating that NASA is having real problem as those
with knowledge of the design of such engines are retiring or have
already retired.

Or are dead. Consider that someone who was, say, 40 years old in 1964
and working on the Apollo project would be 84 today.

What I might have considered is that
newer composite decking material which is designed to last for decades.

The composite deck material is great stuff but it's softer than
Corian, and
I didn't have any. Plus I don't think it comes in white. (Note to self
- raid
relative's basement for the rest of the Corian before they decide to
toss it.)

I'm not familiar with the term "balloon framing". I'm looking it up. I
don't think there's anything available from my local lumberyard in
lengths exceeding 16'.

We used to be able to get up to 20 foot 2x4s but you paid a premium
per
foot and the quality wasn't as good.

We call them "McMansions" in these parts.

There are some of 'em in Wheeling, but not many. I think those homes
were the product of a booming economy and easy credit. Those days are
over for at least the time being.

Yes, that's exactly what caused them. Some folks are left holding the
bag.

It is not unusual around here to see a perfectly good house from the
1950s to 1970s bought and torn down by a developer so a McMansion can
be built. The value is in the land - often the price of the new place
is twice that of the old. The current housing bust has mostly put an
end to that, but not completely. More than a few locals are up in arms
because it means less "affordable" housing units.

I can't really understand the "up in arms" part because we really having
a surplus of existing housing in the country.

What they're up in arms about is that houses in the $300,000 -
$500,000
range are being replaced by houses worth double that or more, on the
same lots. That drastically reduces the number of people who can
afford
to even think about buying them. During a downturn those houses become
unsellable.

On top of that, they tend to increase the impervious surface
percentage of
the lot, so there's more stormwater runoff when it rains. Which floods
the
folks downhill, who were never flooded before, and increases erosion
issues.

The amateur radio connection to all of this is that often the house
which was torn down had mature trees good for antennas and no CC&Rs.
"Development" often removes at least some of the trees, or they don't
survive the construction process, and the new place is usually CC&R'd
to the max.

That IS a problem for radio amateurs. Â I think a bigger problem is th
at
most of our newer housing is built in subdivisions. Â Those subdivisio
ns
are not radio friendly at all. Â I'm seeing more and more magazine
articles on stealth antennas. Â I won't consider living in one of thos
e
areas.

I hope and pray I will never have to consider living in one of those
places, but
as time goes on and more old houses are torn down and replaced by
radio-
unfriendly CC&R'd places, the options decrease.

We're sitting on an acre. Â If we re-locate, I'd be happier with 2 or
3
acres. Â I wouldn't object if half of that area happened to be in tree
s
or woods though.

I've seen the pix; I hope for such a location someday. Non-radio
factors
keep me on my little patch of Radnor Township.

The "how houses are built" part is what I meant to address. Â Things l
ike
a geothermal heating/cooling systems are another factor. Â W8RHM's new

place has one and it is a large house. Â His heating and cooling bills

are quite reasonable.

Because he's not really paying for heating or cooling; he's paying to
run pumps.
A few of the locals here have gone to geothermal; it works. The main
problem
is the first cost.

Beautiful, just beautiful..

If not beautiful, at least it isn't ugly. Â

Beauty in both form and function.

The console and the former
W8YX desk got hauled to each of my Foreign Service postings. Â The
console is approaching thirty years in age. Â It gets a new coat of pa
int
about once per decade.

What is this "paint" of which you speak?

One difference is that your console/desk is purpose-built for the
shack. Custom use, IOW. The op desk I use was designed to be multi-
purpose, and has been on several Field Days, as have the Southgate
rigs.

N8NN and I have been using those plastic-topped banquet tables with the
folding legs inside a screen room for FD use. Â That's because 1) they
're
easy to set up and take down and 2) Bert has some.

I have considered those. If they will fit flat in the current vehicle
they have
possibilities. And again they are multi-use; they won't just be for
FD.

It is really difficult to buy something which is really ideal for an
amateur radio operating position. Â Computer hutches/desks tend to be
a
little on the small side and aren't generally as stoutly built as
necessary. Â For some of us, what worked really well at one point migh
t
not be as handy years later, when the amount of gear expands to fill all
available space. Â I used to get by with the old W8YX desk with a 3x5'

top. Â The position I now use is 3x7'. If I relocate, I'll consider a
homebrew U-shaped operating position. Â The room I'm in at present doe
s
not lend itself to that.

I don't think anything off-the-shelf is really suited for more than a
very small
ham shack. One problem is depth; the equipment needs to sit pretty far
from the op
but the usual 24-30 inch table or computer desk isn't deep enough.

It really is time for new shack/shop furniture for me. The Southgate
Radio team is
on it....

73 de Jim, N2EY